It started out slow, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Gave food for thought about the conditions of women in the late 1800s and the things they did to themselves (mentally & physically) to secure a good marriage. Good message about the importance of being yourself and having faith. ( )

A good book, not a great one. Plot was easy to figure out early in the book. Kind of a drawn out story. No intrigue. ( )

Sharp, smart. One of the best I've read of the pish-posh gilded glamor age. It has that snappy feeling to it of old women with sharp tongues and the ambitious conceits of young, moneyed aristocrats. I'm not big into first person narratives, and I felt the beginning had a slow climb, but the style really does tighten page by page and the characters breath life. Five stars.

( )

Another free download for my Kindle. This is historical fiction set in the debutante world, not of London but New York. Clara, the heroine, has to make her debut a year earlier than expected because her ambitious aunt wants her to marry the local heir. Clara, like any teenager, is one moment excited, another terrified. She's inclined to be an academic, although that part of the story rather got lost.

There are underlying unpleasant themes about the dangers of corsets, and other horrors which teenagers had to suffer in order to be thought attractive. There's also an underlying mystery about what happened to Clara's mother, who died some years before the book starts. While the history is presumably accurate, I found that it intruded rather more than I wished into the storyline.

The Christian theme is extremely low-key, and I suppose this might appeal to teenagers who like historical fiction, but I wasn't particularly impressed. ( )

In the past, you may have read my opinions of [a:Siri Mitchell|2598371|Siri Mitchell|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-F-50x66.jpg] and seen that I enjoy the writing, but that the story was imperceptibly depressing. I was shocked and appauled with the lack of soul in [b:Constant Heart, A|6648596|Constant Heart, A|Siri Mitchell|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wzEeqIoBL._SL75_.jpg|2899170] yet the historical elements were incredible and the writing so true. It was in reading [b:Love's Pursuit|6668876|Love's Pursuit|Siri Mitchell|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51vFs55ZnwL._SL75_.jpg|5948898] that each page was not able to turn fast enough and I was truly stumped until the end but still taken aback and frustrated with the circumstances and sadness of the situation. Yet [b:She Walks in Beauty|6605685|She Walks in Beauty|Siri Mitchell|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DJhj%2BQoOL._SL75_.jpg|6799599] is a delight, a breath of fresh air, and quite the heart titillating beat within a prose of words met by the ear as poetry.

I loved this novel. Each page was another treasure. Every time I had to leave the novel and come back to the story it was as if I were returning to a friend. In years passed I have always wanted to read a tale about the Golden Age in New York City and this novel was not one to disappoint. Yes it had the historical details and some harsh facts which I have come to know Siri's books for. Yet this one has a heart and a soul with tons of personality that laced through the pages and made the next chapter more than just a little something worth coming back for.

Clara Carter is a debutante, and this is her story. It is a suspense, it is a hard life and facts historical, it is a romance, and it is a tragedy. I highly recommend it.

*Thanks to CFBA and Bethany House for providing a copy for review.* ( )